Lynch stays in character in an exclusive interview with
Elle
magazine, out now, waxing lyrical about all things fashion - and what follows is surreal comedy gold.

"Approach a tracksuit like a wild animal," says Sylvester of her signature piece. "Walk gingerly towards it, speaking softly as you do. Then, at the last moment, pounce and wrestle it to the ground and strangle it into submission. It's a process that can easily take three hours. I'm often late for work."

Might she be giving advice to Madonna, who loves the trackies-and-trilby look off-duty? Sylvester famously aped Madonna's
Vogue
in one episode, and when asked which of the singer's guises she identifies with, she offers: "Has to be the porkpie-hat-on-the-back-half-of-the-head look. It's the part of the skull that houses the occipital lobe of the brain, which is where dreams come from. I find that when I warm up that part of my brain, I'm more likely to dream that I'm punching Will Schuester (the glee club's teacher and her nemesis on the show, played by Matthew Morrison) on a tropical vacation, or punching Will Schuester on one of those themed cruises."

Further gems include how her beauty regime involves "rubbing exotic petal orchids every 15 minutes" on her body, her hatred of natural fibres ("My fashion mantra is synthetic, synthetic, synthetic"), and why she refuses to play muse to fashion designers - "I steer clear of creative types ever since I dated Truman Capote in the early Eighties."

Ah, if only real actresses and style types were as outspokenly bonkers as Sue Sylvester when it comes to fashion…

The full interview appears in the March issue of 'Elle' magazine, on sale from February 2